Chapter 20: A Girl Named GA-17 (Part 2)

It had been a month since GA-17 escaped from the laboratory.

Clutching her mentor’s magic copy tightly to her chest, GA-17 shrank into a corner like a frightened mouse, trembling, as the bustling crowd passed by.

Now that she had actually escaped, GA-17, who had zero social experience, was as lost as a newborn baby.

Because she had no identity papers, she didn’t dare set foot in any normal area with surveillance.

For two whole weeks, GA-17 survived on scraps from the trash.

Luckily, her vitality was incredibly tenacious—she could go a month without food and not die.

But GA-17 was a man-made weapon designed to adapt to dangerous battlefield environments, so her ability to adjust was extremely strong.

Eventually, GA-17 found her place among the rough, dilapidated backstage mechanisms hidden behind Deep Blue’s glamorous facade.

From then on, GA-17 drifted like a ghost through the uncharted passages, learning human knowledge from the shadows.

For an ordinary person, that kind of fugitive life would have left them half-dead, collapsed in some corner of a pipe.

But ironically, it was precisely GA-17’s inhuman life form that allowed her to survive.

‘Why bother?’

GA-17 sometimes said to herself.

‘Living like a rat, so miserable that you can’t even stand to look at yourself. Why not just accept your fate and die? Wouldn’t it be a kind of happiness to muddle through life?’

But GA-17 was stubborn.

‘Why? Why does this have to happen to me? Why is fate so unfair to me? Even if I’m not human, don’t I still have a reason to live?’

That thought helped GA-17 get through the hardest times.

In the days that followed, GA-17 gradually became a ghost flitting through the corners of Deep Blue, comfortable and carefree.

Sometimes she’d pop out of some nook, play tricks, mooch food and drinks, and help apprentices who couldn’t finish their assignments pass exams and inspections.

When she got gold coins, she’d buy food, living a wild, untamed life.

It seemed pretty cool, but only GA-17 knew how boring it really was.

After getting sick of reading books in some corner, GA-17 would wander among rows of long-neglected magical machinery, listening to the humming of mechanical operation and feeling the stifling heat from the cooling units.

Or she’d sit in an empty staff rest room, watching the sun rise and set over the edge of the wasteland, and the Twin Moons hang high above the night.

The apprentices living in Deep Blue usually only saw its shiny, beautiful side.

GA-17 thought that whenever she faced those massive magical machines.

But she knew what those amazing magical devices were really like—like she could travel between the surface and the underbelly of the world.

Every time she thought about that, GA-17 felt a little surge of pride, as if she had grasped the truth of the world.

‘So childish.’

Then one day, while wandering around looking for someone to extort gold coins from, GA-17 overheard a rumor among the apprentices.

There was a lucky girl named Luo Ya who had caught the favor of the Grand Archmage Xia An.

He had escorted her into Deep Blue as if she were his own daughter.

She wore Xia An’s exclusive mage robe, and even the veteran Steward Ruiken was at her beck and call.

A wild chicken had turned into a phoenix.

That piqued GA-17’s interest.

Finally, GA-17, who was bored out of her mind, had something to do.

After a few simple reconnaissance trips, GA-17 was amazed to discover that Xia An, the Grand Archmage, hadn’t even installed any additional security devices!

Normally, floors assigned to Grand Archmages came with only the most basic facilities, leaving plenty of room for personalized modifications.

And Grand Archmages were usually extremely protective of their privacy, pouring as much gold as they could into security.

‘Stay far away from those private territories.’

GA-17 had learned that lesson the hard way when half her body nearly got blown off by a trap.

A weirdo like Xia An, who only activated a tiny part of his space—GA-17 had really never seen that before.

That meant GA-17 could wander back and forth through Xia An’s territory as easily as if it were her own home.

But being exposed to a Grand Archmage’s Mental Perception was still dangerous, so GA-17 started by skirting the edges.

During that time, GA-17 had secretly observed the lucky girl many times without her knowing.

At first, GA-17 really didn’t like her.

As someone not favored by fate, GA-17 just hated people with good luck.

But after actually interacting with her…

To GA-17’s surprise, the lucky girl wasn’t that annoying after all.

She worked extremely hard, and she didn’t have that weird sense of entitlement that the spoiled noble apprentices had.

She knew she was lucky and often felt guilty, thinking she didn’t deserve any of it.

When Xia An wasn’t around, the girl would frequently run to the Gardenia Tree in the Central Garden and read her textbooks alone late into the night, then give up and roll around on the lawn in frustration.

GA-17 saw the confusion in that girl’s eyes—it reminded her of herself.

‘Maybe… I should help her?’

So GA-17, as if possessed, revealed herself and silently approached the girl.

It happened to be the season when the gardenias were in full bloom.

Watching the white petals drift down from the tree, GA-17 was momentarily stunned.

‘Just lie here for a while,’ she thought, lying down beside the girl.

The girl was lost in her own thoughts, while GA-17 was lost in the shower of petals.

In her short life, GA-17 had never felt such a pleasant moment.

She knew what she was doing was stupid and immature.

But if you really counted, GA-17 was less than two years old.

So not everything had to be so “mature,” right?

So when she heard the girl’s dejected and helpless words—“I’m so useless”—GA-17 responded with a pretentious, chuunibyou line straight out of a novel.

The girl’s surprised expression made GA-17 feel great.

Appearing out of nowhere like that made her feel like some mysterious master, and she was immensely pleased.

After GA-17 and that girl named Luo Ya had a ridiculously chuunibyou conversation, GA-17 ended with an equally cheesy line: “Do you desire power?”

Looking back, GA-17 thought that was so cringe.

But Luo Ya didn’t see through it at the time—she was clearly intimidated by GA-17’s mysterious aura.

When Luo Ya asked her name, GA-17 realized she hadn’t given herself a name since she escaped.

Then she recalled the feeling of lying comfortably on the grass, letting the white gardenia petals cover her whole body.

She thought Zhi Zi was a great name.

One time, Zhi Zi secretly used True Sight Eye to get close to Luo Ya and Xia An.

She saw Xia An and Luo Ya cooking together.

The orange glow of the sunset fell on them, as if coating the memory in a golden frame.

That table of dishes was just ordinary home-cooked food, but Zhi Zi didn’t know why, but she really wanted to taste it.

She knew that what she really wanted wasn’t the food.

But she still told Luo Ya the price was that dish.

‘Just one bite! It’s not like I’m stealing your Lord Xia An away.’

‘Hmph!’

After that, Zhi Zi clearly started to feel overwhelmed.

She took Luo Ya to the Forbidden Books Area, because there was a slacking librarian there, and Zhi Zi had hidden the magic copy she’d taken out earlier.

Using Lian Shan Xianzhe’s magic, Zhi Zi threw Luo Ya into a scene simulation.

Her mentor treated his magic like his own life—this was both Zhi Zi’s revenge on him and a small bit of jealousy acting up.

But Luo Ya’s performance in the simulation truly shocked Zhi Zi.

What stunned her even more was that Luo Ya actually awakened the Knight Remnant Soul’s consciousness and received his inheritance!

By the time Luo Ya displayed her extraordinary spiritual perception talent, Zhi Zi’s mind had gone numb.

She felt like a clown.

How could Grand Archmage Xia An have picked up a random girl and taken her as a disciple for no reason?

With such monstrous talent, Luo Ya was bound to go far in the future.

Xia An clearly had his own plans for Luo Ya.

And she, on her own impulse, had forced things too early.

Not only did she disrupt Grand Archmage Xia An’s plans for Luo Ya, but she also brought Luo Ya to Lian Shan Xianzhe’s attention.

‘How stupid.’

But there was no regret medicine in this world.

When Luo Ya used the Sin of the Styx in the Magic Net Livestream in front of all of Deep Blue, Zhi Zi was completely trapped between a rock and a hard place.

If that news reached her mentor…

She had chosen to bring out that particular simulation segment because her mentor had always been obsessed with it, wanting to incorporate that power into his experimental subjects but never succeeding.

Now, the only way to calm things down was to go back to her mentor and surrender herself, taking all the blame…

‘And Grand Archmage Xia An, who just arrived beside me—he must be here to warn me.’

‘To have someone tolerate my willfulness, hold me gently, and shield me from the storm…’

‘As I thought, it was just my fantasy…’

But it’s okay, little Luo Ya.

I’ll make sure everything ends here.

I promise.